Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 124, No. 3 — page 46: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

420 was running low; he was getting shabby; and there must come a halt while he earned enough to enable him to go on. To be sure he had some cash left; but it would not last much longer. He might as well work for the Circle Star as to continue his wanderings, and at last get a job farther east. The necessity for work would finally prove imperative. And yet Shorty knew that thé real rea- son for his inclination to delay at the Circle Star was the girl he had met at the water- hole. He knew that if he had net met her he would have kept going eastward until he found Kelton or until the last coin in the bag Lawler had given him had gone the way of the others. As it was there was still money in the bag—eneugh to have enabled him to travel some distance, conceding he would be as careful with it as he had been until new—and Sherty knew he was not considering the meney at all. He grinned guiltily as he rode, mentally seeking vindication fer a decision already made. | “It ain’t as though I’d called it off,” he mused. “I’m goin’ on again after a while. Why, I reckon it’s human nature for a man to like a woman. Things like that are bound to come along—Larry ’ll know how it is.” There, too, was still the hope that he might find Brail Kelton in the vicinity of Loma. borhood even if he had not met the girl at the water-hole. _ | He rode on, convinced that he was not cheating Larry by delaying for a time, feel- ing lighter of heart now that he had es- tablished a defense against the attacks -of conscience. He would return to the Circle Star—after he had combed Loma in ‘search of Kelton. 7 Half-way to Loma he reached a slope that took him to the bed of a shallow river. He dismounted, turned Red King into some tall grass near the water’s edge: built a fire with some dried mesquite; un- rolled his slicker and got out his cooking utensils. After he placed the coffee-pot on the fire he found a deep hole in the river and bathed himself, emerging from the cold Certainly he would not have ne- glected to search for Kelton in the neigh- - baa, | , * sw ~ gta 7 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. water dripping, glowing, and with a keen hunger gnawing at him. He was still in no hurry. The sun was high when he finally left, the river, heading again into the eastern distance. Once out of the shallow valley he reached the plains once more, and about mid-morning came in sight of the town. He had seen many towns like Loma; and there was little curiosity in his eyes as he rode between two rows of frame shanties that had been built with little or no regard for appearances. Over Loma’s buildings had settled the dust of many seasons; their fronts were seamed and cracked from ex- posure to the weather; in side and rear were mounds of refuse—an affront to the esthetic traveler who occasionally visited the place: accepted as a matter of course by residents of the section. Shorty rode to about the center of town, bringing Red King to a halt at a hitching- rail in front of a building which bore a sign: LOMA EATING HOUSE Shorty was conscious that the gaze of many men followed him as he dismounted. Many horses were standing at hitching- | rails in front of various buildings; the doors of saloons yawned open, with men lounging on their thresholds and draping benches along their fronts; there were other men in groups on the hard-beaten sand that formed a sidewalk. Shorty paid little attention to Loma’s citizens. Since he had left Lawler’s ranch he had visited many towns, and invariably he had undergone the staring of the curious with much the same indifference he exhibit- ed now. : But while Shorty had been riding down Loma’s one street the words of the stranger he had talked with recurred to him: ‘‘ Loma ain’t none nice as regards morals. It’s likely folks in Loma never heard the word. Loma ain’t a town—it’s a sink-hole where all the scum in the country gathers. If you’re headin’ that way you want to ride careful an’ keep lookin’ behind you. You want to talk soft an’ polite. There’s a hell- blazin’ crowd in Loma that ’1l salivate you if they don’t like the way you hold your mouth.” . : GOR GDOO SS (COL